Early baseball in Illinois/Club 1

From SABR Encyclopedia

SABR Origins Committee project on the
Spread of baseball
Key pages
Project home page Project map History of early baseball Research needs in the spread of baseball
Lists
Earliest games by state Earliest clubs by state All games  ·  All clubs Predecessor games Other firsts in baseball
Help
Researching early baseball Submitting research online

From Protoball Entry #1856.24 – First Chicago Club Forms

"Though baseball match games had been played in Illinois since the very early 1850's, the first Chicago Club, the Union, was not established until 1856."

John R. Husman, "Ohio's First Baseball Game," Presented at the 34th SABR Convention, July 2004.

The cite for this is a newspaper article written in 1919. [BA]

Query: are details of the earlier IL games available? Are we sure that the Union played by Association rules?